The Families

The Families is a major African-American street gang that was founded in the 1980s in South-Central Los Angeles, California. The Families once ruled over Compton, Playa del Seville, and Temple, Los Angeles, but its power was greatly reduced by the rival Ballas and Vagos gangs, which took back much of their lost turfs in the late 1990s and the 2000s; by 2013, The Families had lost Compton, and they were confined to Baldwin Village. The group was split by infighting between the Grove Street Families, Temple Drive Families, and Seville Boulevard Families in 1992, and it was composed of five sets by 2013, fracturing the group into feuding factions. However, it remained one of the strongest gangs in the city, and it continued to fight the Ballas and Vagos twenty years after the 1992 gang wars.